Just what is passive income? Very simply, it’s income you get from doing nothing. There’s always an initial investment of time or money, but after that you can earn money with minimal effort. Real estate is the typical example — you buy a duplex, rent it out and let the cash roll in. I’m glossing over the details like making sure you have decent tenants, doing maintenance work, that sort of thing, but it is really minimal effort compared to a 9-to-5 grind.

That’s all fine and dandy, you might tell me. But what does that have to do with freelance writing?* Well, there are several types of writing that lend themselves to helping you create passive income. Books, for example, are ideal. You write a book. The book gets published. The book gets bought. You get royalties from here on to forever. Maybe you do some minimal maintenance work and turn out a second edition. You still get royalties. Passive income! Ain’t it great? Think about whether you can do something similar with screenplays and such.

Magazine articles aren’t quite so easy to use for continuous income. You can only sell first rights once. But you can sell reprint rights over and over and over again. It’s a little more work than our minimal maintenance. But use your imagination! Can you turn your magazine articles into a book or a white paper? What about blog entries?

Ooh! Blogs! There’s about a million different ways to set up advertising and affiliate programs with your blog. Assuming you’ll be writing anyhow, that’s pure profit for you! And you don’t have to rely on blogging, either. Most programs work equally well with run of the mill websites.

How else can you turn your work into a continuous income?

*Aside, of course, from any recommendations I might have towards investing your income.